1. Field
The present disclosure relates to spine-and-leaf networks, and in particular relates to an optical interconnection assembly for spine-and-leaf network scale out, and further relates to spine-and-leaf networks that employ the optical interconnection assembly.
2. Technical Background
A data center is a location that houses computers and related telecommunications equipment and components for the purpose of processing (e.g., receiving, storing, managing and transmitting) data. Data centers often need to be expanded or “scaled out,” wherein hardware is added to accommodate the increasing data-processing demands. It is thus desirable that the data-center hardware be configured in a manner that is scalable, i.e., that can support scale out of the hardware such that the data-processing performance of the data center improves in direct proportion to the added capacity.
Traditional data-center architectures have relied on a three-tier switching architecture whereby network reliability and scale-out capability is accomplished through switch redundancy. However, the three-tier switching architecture is not optimal for certain types of data centers, such as Internet data centers, that process relatively large amounts of data.
A more suitable network architecture for high-capacity data centers is called a “spine-and-leaf” (S/F) architecture, which flattens the network to reduce latency and redundancy. The S/F architecture utilizes leaf switches and spine switches, with every leaf switch connected to every spine switch to define a network mesh or network fabric. The ability to scale out the S/F network depends on the data rates employed, e.g., 10 GbE or 40 GbE. Presently, the spine-switch multi-fiber (MF) components and the leaf-switch MF components are predominately 40 GbE, so it would seem desirable to create a 40-GbE mesh. However, such a mesh limits the network's ability to be scaled out because the leaf switch used typically has only four 40-GbE uplink MF components to interface with the spine switch, which limits the network to four spine switches.
One approach to overcoming this type of scale-out limitation involves creating a 10-GbE mesh to allow for four times the amount of scale-out capability, i.e., sixteen 10-GbE MF components that allow for sixteen spine switches. This 10-GbE mesh can be created by using cabling in the form of LC duplex jumpers to break out each 40-GbE MF component into 4×10 GbE MF components to obtain the sixteen 10-GbE MF components. However, this creates cabling complexity while simultaneously counteracting the otherwise desirable high-density MTP connections.